"I have never stooped to the narration of a mystery story. At the risk of seeming somewhat less than modest, I shall quote from my own works. The sentence, so often reprinted, that opens my essay 'Of Sound and Fury' is reprinted here:

" 'When, during the 1936 campaign, I learned that the President was a devotee of mystery stories, I voted a straight Republican ticket.' "

Seana, i'll take for granted that Highsmith is one of the one's you've read, and i have vague memories of having discussed Charlotte Armstrong or Dolores Hitchens around or during Bouchercon in Long Beach. And the collection seems to be getting lots of attention.

A bouquet to the Library of America for its page that properly calls this collection a "boxed" rather than the lazy and, presumably, ignorant "box" set.

Highsmith is not one of the ones I've read, unfortunately, though I've seen at least a couple movie adaptations. But I did read Hitchens around Bouchercon last year and enjoyed her enough to order another book of hers which somehow never arrived. And I've read pretty much all of Dorothy Hughes. I think I read a Charlotte Armstrong when I was in high school and I'm pretty sure I read one Margaret Millar although it may not have been one of her best because it made no impression on me.

Charlotte Armstrong's "The Unsuspected" was a highlight of my reading last year; I called it a mix of Chrsitie, Simenon, and cornell Woolrich, and I also liked Dolores Hitchens' "Sleep With Strangers." And Vera Caspary's "Laura" knocked my socks off,

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This blog is a proud winner of the 2009 Spinetingler Award for special services to the industry and its blogkeeper a proud former guest on Wisconsin Public Radio's Here on Earth. In civilian life I'm a copy editor in Philadelphia. When not reading crime fiction, I like to read history. When doing neither, I like to travel. When doing none of the above, I like listening to music or playing it, the latter rarely and badly.
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